222 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol.36 



J. A. Hakkis {Genetics, 1 (1916), No. 2, pp. 185-196). — The author, considering 

 a study of the relationships between slight structural variations and the physio- 

 logical characteristics of individuals or of organs as one of the most funda- 

 mental lines of genetic research, has presented the results of an attempt to 

 determine something of the more fundamental physiological characteristics to 

 which incapacity for survival may be due. Seed of a strain of navy beans 

 which has been under observation for several years was germinated in sand 

 in warm houses and studied under controlled conditions as to given types of 

 variation occurring with the greatest frequency. 



The results as tabulated and discussed are considei'ed to show that the weight 

 of primordial leaf tissue developed by morphologically aberrant seedlings of 

 Phaseolus vulgaris is, on the average, less than that produced by normal con- 

 trols grown under conditions as nearly as possible comparable. Evidences ob- 

 tained by employment of the conductivity and freezing point methods to detect 

 differences in the concentration in molecules and ions in cell sap of leaves from 

 teratological and those from normal plants suggest a lower concentration of 

 both electrolytes and total solutes in tissue fluids of teratological plants, but 

 the differences are slight and variable, requiring further and more refined 

 determinations for actual demonstration of relationship. The data as a whole 

 demonstrate merely that no clear differences in properties exist between the 

 leaf sap of the two types of leaves. 



The dependence of mutation coefficients upon external conditions, H. dh 

 Vkies {Ber. Deut. Bot. Gesell., 34 {1916), No. 1, pp. 2-7).— The author details 

 the percentages of four clear and easily recognizable mutants obtained by grow- 

 ing indoors at 30° C. CEnothera lamarckiana, also from tho.se obtained by cross- 

 ing (E. lata with CE. lamarckiana, CE. lata with (E. nanella, and (E. lamarckiana 

 with (E. natiella. 



A comparison of the wood structure of CEnothera stenomeres and its 

 tetraploid mutation gigas, W. W. Tuppee and H. H. Baktlett {Genetics, 1 

 {1916), No. 2, pp. 177-184). — Data bearing upon the nature of the changes in 

 particular cells and tissues which follow mutative changes in the germ plasm 

 are presented. The authors state that the change from the 2x to the 4x chromo- 

 some number in CE. stenomeres is accompanied by an increase of 50 per cent 

 in the length of the vessels and of 150 per cent in the area of the cross section, 

 an increase of 50 per cent in the length and the diameter, and of 200 per cent 

 in the volume of the tracheids, an increase in all three dimensions of the ray 

 cells resulting in a cell of different shape, with an increase of 274 per cent in 

 volume, and a breaking up of the tall multiple medullary rays into their con- 

 stituent simple rays. 



Anthocyanin markings and cell mutation, E. Ktjster {Ber. Deut. Bot. Gesell., 

 33 {1915), No. 10, pp. 536, 537). — It is claimed that cell markings in many cases 

 are to be ascribed to cell mutation, some of these, however, being independent of 

 the formation and distribution of anthocyanin, but it is said that in a number of 

 varieties of Coleus hyiridus anthocyanin distribution is not to be ascribed to cell 

 mutation. 



The differentiation of starches of parent stock and hybrids, E. T. Reichebt 

 {Carnegie Inst. Washington Year Book, 14 {1915), pp. 4O8, 409). — It is stated 

 that the studies on the differentiation and specificity of corresponding vital 

 substances have, during the past year, been restricted to the study of the 

 starches of parent stocks and hybrids, noting chiefly the peculiarities obser- 

 vable in case of each parent and tracing them to the starch of the offspring. 



The extension and improvement of methods previously employed (E. S. R., 

 31, p. 804) have resulted in a confirmation of the conclusions previously an- 



